Feminism… Thoughts!

iruo April 26, 2022 2 Comments

Hi guys! I trust y’all are doing great. Feminism! What’s it about? When did it begin? What is it today? Who are extremists or fanatics regarding feminism? All of this I intend to cover in this article. If not, it’s prolly gon be a series where I’ll cover holistically the subject as much as I can in subsequent articles.

Without further ado, let’s delve right into it!

Feminism – What is It?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines feminism as the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Wikipedia says it is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. It goes on to say that feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view, that women are treated unjustly within those societies, and that efforts to change that include fighting against gender stereotypes and establishing educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women that are equal to those for men. Britannica says feminism at its core, is the belief in full social, economic, and political equality for women. It also says feminism largely arose in response to Western traditions that restricted the rights of women, but feminist thought has global manifestations and variations. Fair definitions yeah‽ Well, let’s further explore and find out what history has to say regarding feminism, as we travel down memory lane. Shall we‽

The Waves of Feminism

For decades, the feminist movement has made tremendous progress in advocating for the rights of women. A good number of scholars and activists presume that there are three distinct “waves” of feminism, with the “#MeToo Movement” indicating a present-day fourth wave. However, the history of the feminist movement is way more complex.

National Women’s History Museum puts it this way “It is common to speak of three phases of modern feminism; however, there is little consensus as to how to characterize these three waves or what to do with women’s movements before the late nineteenth century. Making the landscape even harder to navigate, a new silhouette is emerging on the horizon and taking the shape of a fourth wave of feminism”.

The word “waves” represents the several surges of feminism which started in March 10, 1968, when the American author of Where Did I Leave My Glasses? as well as the bestsellers; The Child Worshipers and Heartsounds, which became a Peabody Award–winning film, who was then the articles editor and staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, Martha Weinman Lear published an article in the New York Times called “The Second Feminist Wave.” Her article connected the suffrage movement of the 19th century with the women’s movements during the 1960s. This term gradually but increasingly gained popularity and in no time became the go-to way to explain feminism.

Inspite of the fact that the term “feminist waves” is quite handy in contrasting between several periods of women’s activism, it is impossible to accurately spot specific dates that began or ended each wave of feminism. In reality, each historical period was inspired by a long tradition of activism that transcended generational lines.

How it all Began (The Dawn)

A number of individuals considered as the foremothers of the modern women’s movement like Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austen all advocated for the dignity, intelligence, and basic human potential of the female sex. However, it was not until the late nineteenth century that the efforts for women’s equal rights synthesized into an unambiguous, identifiable and self-conscious movement/movements. A few intellectuals have strived to trace the origins of feminism to the middle ages with Hildegard of Bingen,, Sappho, 570 BCE, or Christine de Pisan.

Furthermore, The foremost wave of the feminist movement is normally tied to the first formal Women’s Rights Convention (the Seneca Falls Convention) held in 1848. Back then, three hundred men and women moved for the cause of equality for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Seneca Falls Declaration outlining the new movement’s ideology and political strategies.

Nonetheless, the first-wave feminists were influenced by the collaborative activism of women in various other reformation movements. Specifically, feminists drew strategic, as well as tactical insight from women participating in the French Revolution, the Temperance Movement, and the Abolitionist Movement.

We’ll stop here for the now, and continue in our next article. It’s a series remember!

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Comments (02)

John Scene

June 3, 2022

Wow! Lovely write up… I’ll sure follow this series.

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- iruo
  
  August 1, 2022
  
  Many thanks, John Scene. Please do.
  
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